California San Fernando Mission

Van Nuys week 10

We officially have a new mission president! Weird to think about. President Henrie got here this morning, had about 2 hours to be with President Hall, and boom he became the California San Fernando Mission President. Just like that! We haven’t met him yet or anything haha, but he seems like a great man. He wrote us all a short letter to introduce himself, then on this Friday we’ll have a “Meet the Mission President” Zone Conference. Exciting times. Seriously though, it’s weird sitting here following our normal preparation day schedule when in the back of my mind I realize I have a new mission president haha.

Good week though! No annoying meetings to get in the week, just puro trabajo. No annoying meetings also means exchanges, and exchanges also means miracles! Seriously. I stayed in our Van Nuys area for all three we did this week. Elder Kennard, one of our district leaders, came here on Tuesday. Let me tell you what, we worked. Cool lil’ miracle: so recently in the stake we’ve been praying to find prepared/worthy men to receive the priesthood in the future and become leaders of the church. That’s something this stake has always struggled with, mostly because when most of the youth grow up they move to English wards. Well Elder Kennard and I were walking down the sidewalk, talking with everyone (like good missionaries do), when we met a guy named Baltimore. He immediately seems to like us more than most, and after talking with him for a bit we realized he was already a member! Super less active. He was baptized in El Salvador but when he moved here stopped going to church. The biggest surprise was that he straight up told us: “Oh si, tengo el sacerdocio de…Melchizedek, verdad?” (Oh yeah, I’ve got the…’Melchizedek’ Priesthood, right?”. What the??? Some of the active members don’t even know what that is! He was totally down to be visited by us and come back asap. I’m tellin you, the Lord answers prayers in the most unexpected ways.

The other two exchanges were awesome too. Talking with everyone, teaching some progressing investigators, having good times. At Coordination Meeting on Thursday my companion for the day, Elder Blakeley was joking around with our ward mission leader as he talked about his “rancho” in Mexico. This conversation killed me.

“Si, pues yo naci en un rancho!” -WML

“No en un hospital?” -Elder Blakeley

“Noooo, en un rancho…con caballos y vacas y todo” -WML

“Entonces, como Jesucristo?” -Elder Blakeley

(Face lights up) “Pues si, de veras! Miralo! De veras, si!” -WML

Jajajajajaja. So good. Use a translator if you don’t understand that…I love Latinos haha.

One more miracle share before my time runs out here. During last weeks weekly planning session Elder Kimball just decided: “You know what, I want to help someone move this week!” So we were looking for opportunities since then. The first one came up on Saturday. And it was a good one. This young couple was moving out and we offered to help. They were hesitant at first, but they accepted! We got talking, and it turned out the friends they asked to help earlier bailed that morning but out of nowhere we showed up “for a reason” (in the words of the lady). We got talking about religion a bit and it turned out they were super down to listen to the missionaries. Angie and Angel. Best referral ever…we just made a companionship in downtown LA’s day.

Have a great week everyone! Looking forward to telling you all about President and Sister Henrie next week.